Abstract:

Even though universities are innovation and research hubs, as traditional institutions they are quite often rather resistant to change processes. It requires large investments of time and resources to initiate change within these well-established organizations. Too often, change only takes place on a small scale, i.e. in nuclear groups, and therefore can frequently be lost with ever-changing personnel.

With its university wide project DigiTeLL, the Goethe University Frankfurt wants to break this cycle and aims at forging new paths. Teaching and learning innovations are developed in two phases: the incubation phase, i.e. the development of new digital learning designs within specific fields or departments, and the subsequent acceleration phase, in which the new concepts with their respective digital tools in teaching and learning are developed into more generalized templates ready to use in different subject areas. A key element of the acceleration phase is the transfer and rollout of the newly developed digital learning designs across the university, thus making these innovations available to a broader field of users. To achieve this, the learning designs have be made available as Open Educational Resources (OER).

Creating opportunities for synergies and interdisciplinary collaboration between innovators is another central aspect of this approach. To this end, all subjects and status groups are invited to participate in DigiTeLL. The inclusion of students in all projects within the DigiTeLL portfolio supports a student-centered approach.

A core part of the project is the "Digital Teaching and Learning Lab" (DigiTeLL), a (virtual) communication and collaboration space designed to enable a continuous innovation cycle. In the lab, teachers or student groups collaborate with each other and with central support structures in partnerships in order to develop and implement new digital learning designs in university courses. The partnerships expand teaching, learning and examination scenarios at the Goethe University for a didactically driven inclusion of digital instruments to further students’ academic success.

New concepts are being developed and tested along the themes "methods and mediation" as well as "feedback and activation" and made widely available following an evaluation process during the pilot phase. Each partnership addresses at least one of eight topics for innovative digitally supported learning designs - these include self-study tools, the use of AR/VR, research-based learning and formative peer assessments, as well as adaptive testing, e-exams, automated feedback and learning analytics. Diversity and accessibility as well as constructive alignment are presets in DigiTeLL that have to be addressed within all DigiTeLL partnerships to tailor project results to the needs of the heterogeneous student body. DigiTeLL has funded thirty-nine partnerships for up to twelve months each in two rounds of funding.

In the proposed oral presentation, the DigiTeLL innovation cycle outlined here will be presented as well as a selection of partnerships from both funding rounds.

Keywords:

Innovation cycle, digital learning designs, open educational resources, constructive alignment, accessibility, collaboration, partnerships, AR/VR, digital tools.